Hydrogen-generator.



No. 778,182. PATENTED DEG.20,1904.

- H. s. ELWORTHY.

HYDROGEN GENERATOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 21. 1904.

no MODEL. I 2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

No. 778,182. PATENTED DEC. 20, 1904. H. S. ELWORTHY.

HYDROGEN GENERATOR.

'APPLIOATION FILED MAR. 21. 1904. I

No MODEL- 2 SHEETSSHEET 2.

WITNESSES." llvvmroR; MJM M UNITED STATES Patented December 20, 1904.

PATENT OFFicE.

HERBERT SAMUEL ELVVORTHY, OF LONDON, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR OF ONE- HALF TOERNEST HENRY WILLIAMSON, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

HYDROGEN-GENERATOR.-

SPEGIFIGATION forming part of Letters Patent No 778,182, dated December20, 1904.

Original application filed January 21, 1903, Serial No. 139,941. Dividedand this application filed March 21, 1904. Serial No. 199,130.

T at whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, HERBERT SAMUEL EL- WORTHY, consulting chemicalengineer, a subject of the King of Great Britain andIreland, residing inDashwood House, New Broad street, London, England, have invented certainnew and useful Improvements in Hydrogen-Generators, of which thefollowing is a specification.

This invention relates to apparatus for the production of hydrogen foruse in the manufacture of gas for illuminating, heating, and powerpurposes, as described in the specification of United States LettersPatent granted to me, No. 738,303, dated September 8, 1903. In themanufacture of gas according to the said specification itis proposed tomix hydrogen with water-gas and lead the mixture over metallic nickel,whereby a gas is obtained consisting chiefly of methane. The presentapplication is a division of my application, Serial No. 139,941, ofJanuary. 21, 1903, wherein I have described and claimed in general aform of apparatus for practicing such process.

The apparatus which forms the subject of the present invention isdesigned to produce hydrogen for this purpose according to'the.

known reaction of steam upon metallic iron, whereby at a suitabletemperature the steam is decomposed, the hydrogen liberated, and

the iron converted to the state of magnetic oxid in accordance with theequation 3Fe+4=H2O Fe3Oi+4H 2;

This reaction has ffequently been utilizedin the gas industry,-the ironbeing alternately oxidized by the steam in a hydrogen-producing stageand the resulting oxid reduced by a gaseous reducing agent-watergas, forexample. The apparatus hitherto proposed for the purpose, however, aresubject to serious drawbacks in practice, owing to the liability of theiron to cake together and to its difliculty of access and removal. Theiron. rapidly cakes and chokes, so that the steam or gas comes intocontact with only a small propor- 'tion of the active surface and greatloss of eflicieney results. It is thus frequently necessary to removeand replenish the iron; but this is a laborious and expensive operation,owing to the construction of the furnace and difliculty of the removalof the iron. Oonsiderable quantities of heat are liberated in thereducing stage of the process, and although, of course, a certainquantity of this heat will be absorbed by the walls and other parts ofthe furnace no practical means are provided to store and economize thisheat in the known forms of furnace. Now by the present invention I notonly overcome these disadvantages, but 1 also provide a very large bodyor mass of inert material in the furnace, this material acting, so tospeak, like a heat sponge to store up the heat liberated in the reducingstage, while always preserving a clear path for the steam orreducing-gas, insuring their perfect and intimate contact with the ironand permitting of ready removal and changing of any andevery portion ofthe charge of active material. I thus effect a great economy in fuel,while largely increasing the efliciency of the furnace'and simplifyingand improving the working thereof.

According to thepresent invention the iron in finely-divided form iscarried in a large number of separate trays of refractory fire- .brickor the like, each adapted to contain a shallow layer of iron infinely-divided form and to be built up in successive layers from bottomto top of the furnace, so as to form a close-lying refractory filling.The trays are open at their ends to enable the steam or gas to passfreely over them in contact with the iron when built up, and they have,preferably, supporting flanges or feet for supporting the under face ofone tray at a suitable distance from the material on the tray below, andthis under face of the tray reflects or radiates a great quantity ofheat onto the shallow layer of metallic iron during the heat absorbingor oxidizing stage, while at the same time super-.

heating the steam as it passes along the narrow shallow channel betweenthe upper and lower series of trays. It willbe evident-that theseflanges or feet may be dispensed with if the holding space of the traysbe made 'sufliciently deep. When the trays are built up in the furnace,they form a number of distinct narrow flues or channels containing ashallow layer of iron and running in a zigzag course from bottom to topof the furnace and affording free passage for the steam or reducing-gas. These narrow fines, so to speak, divide up the mass ofrefractory material into a cellular structure such that while the gasescan pass freely through the cell-fines over the iron the largestpossible amount of heat is absorbed by the refractory material.

The furnace is preferably heated internally, and to this end it may bealso so constructed with the combustion-chain ber in the base that itcan in the first place be heated to the required extent by gas-tiringeither with producer, water, or coal gas. It may, however, beconstructed without this combustion-chamher in the base and heated bymeans of hot air or heated products of combustion from another source,preferably by a hot-air blast from an ordinary regenerative stove, andthis stove may be the one in which the steam which has to be passed overthe iron for the production of hydrogen is superheated at a later stage,as hereinafter described.

In order to facilitate the production of the hydrogen'by contact ofsteam with iron, in addition to heating the retorts or furnacescontaining the iron, the steam used for the reaction may be very highlysuperheated in regenerative blast-stoves. The iron should be in afinely-divided state, but may be in porous lumps, if desired. In orderto reduce the oxid of iron to the metallic state, and thus render itavailable for reuse, I may pass a certain quantity of the producer-gasmade during the blowing stage of the water-gas process or in otherconvenient way over it at a high temperature, whereby the carboninonoxid contained in that gas, assisted by the small proportion ofhydrogen generally present, reduces itin accordance with the equationthe hydrogen being at the same time converted into Water. When usingproducergas for the reduction of the iron, it is advisable to superheatthe producer-gas, as in this manner greater heat is produced and storedup in the iron-containing furnace for use in the hydrogen-making part ofthe process.

Instead of using the producer-gas obtained in the blowing-up stage ofthe water-gas process for reducing the oxid of iron I may use a portionof the water-gas itself or the gas from a separate gas-producer,preferably worked by means of a steam-jet blower, as a certainproportion of hydrogen assists in the reductionof the iron oxid by thecarbon monoxid.

The accompanying drawings represent an example of hydrogen-producerconstructed according to the invention.

Figure 1 is a sectional side elevation, a view of the end trays beingshown in section; Fig. 2, a sectional front elevation partly intransverse vertical section, on line A H of Fig. I.

This producer consists of a rectmigular structure of refractory brickwith an outer metallic shell or casing and having an arched top, asshown. It is formed or provided at the base with an inlet (t for gaseousfuel for heating up the generator when required and also with anotherinlet 7) for producer or water gas for reducing the oxid of iron formedin the hydrogen producing reaction, both these inlets being providedwith suitable valves 0 and (Z to enable them to be closed. It will beobvious that one such inlet would sufiice; but it is in many casesconvenient to have separate inlets for the heating and reducingoperations. On the iioor of the generator are disposed a convenientnumber of pillars or supports f, arranged at equal distances apart alongand across the base of the generator, so as to support the ends of thetrays for containing iron when these are superposed thereon, asdescribed later. A combustion-ehamber is thus provided at the base ofthe generator. A valved air-inlet h opens through the side of thegenerator into the combustion-chamber and a steam-inlet pipe i is alsoarranged to discharge into same,

it is a manhole for cleaning purposes provided with a door.

Zrepresents the trays for containing the iron. These are of refractorytire brick. They are of square shape in plan and of I form in section,as seen in Fig. 2-that is to say, they are formed with a iiange or lipat two opposite sides extending for a short distance above and below thecentral horizontal plane of the tray, so as to support the ilanges ofthe tray next above and provide a channel between each pair ofsuperposed trays for the passage of the steam or gases. These trays aretilled with iron in powdered form and are piled one above another alongand across the generator, the abutting corners or angles of the bottomrange of trays being supported by the pillars f, disposed, as beforedescribed, at equal dis tances along and across the iloor of theproducer. The remaining trays are built up over the bottom range oftrays, each range beii'ig supported by the flanges of the trays of therow next below. The refractory lire-brick lining at the right and lefthand side of the generator is formed with a vertical series ofsupporting-ledgesm, extending from front to back, each of these ledgesbeing designed to support the end trays of the range next above at theside where the particular lodge is situated. Each range of trays isdisposed in baffled or staggered order with respect to the range nextabove it, the left-hand trays of the bottom row, for example, beingsupported on the bottom left-hand ledge m and lying close against thewall of the generator, while the right-hand trays of the bottom range donot extend-quite to the wall on the right-hand side. (See Fig. 1.) Theright-hand end trays of the second range are then supported on thebottom right-hand support an and, similarly, lie close against the wallat that side, while the left-hand trays of this second range do notextend quite to the opposite wall, and so on to the top, thisarrangement being adopted to allow for expansion of the trays when thatwhen each range of trays is placed in position the heating or reducinggases or steam, as the case may be, passed through the generator isorare baffled by every succeeding range of trays at each side of thegenerator alternately, so that the steam or gases pass from the top ofeach range of traysto the top of the range next above, so as to passover the material on same, as shown by the arrows. Further, the abuttinglips or flanges of the trays which are built up as before describedconstitute vertical walls or partitions which divide the interior of thegenerator up into a number of independent flues or passages running in azigzag course from back to front and from front to back alternately frombottom to top of the generator. In this way intimate contact of thesteam or gases with the material on each tray is assured, and, moreover,the large quantities of heat evolved in the reaction of the producer-gaswith the iron to reduce the oxid of iron is stored-up and renderedavailable for use 1 in the oxidation stage of the working, great economybeing thus attained. Each range or course of trays is also preferablydisposed in slightlystaggered order with respect to the range nextabove, as shown in Fig. 2,a slight space being left between the endtrays of each range.

at the front and back alternately. In this Way the trays can expandevenly without interfering with the uninterrupted course of the gases,as above described.

0 is the hydrogen-outlet to the supply-pipe p, which leads the hydrogento the point where it is required to mix it with the water-gas in theprocess of gas manufacture before referred to.

q is an outlet-pipe for the waste gases obtained in the reducing stageof the working that is to say, when the producer or other reducing gasis passed through the generator to reduce the iron oxid formed in thehydrogenproducing stage. Valves r and s are provided in outlet-pipes pand g, respectively, to enable same to be opened and closed whenrequired, and the valve 0 enables the amount of hydrogen delivered fromthe generator to be controlled.

tis a manhole adapted to be closed by a suitable door and giving accessto the interior of the generator to enable the trays tobe placed inposition therein.

It will be understood that when the generator is first run to producehydrogen the trays; contain a suitable depth of metallic iron infinely-divided'form and are piled up in position, as above explained. Aconvenient way of obtaining the finely-divided metallic iron is to fillthe trays with oxid of iron and pile them in position in the furnace andthen reduce the oxid to the metallic state by passing producer or watergas over it after it has been heated to the required temperature. theiron is in the metallic state, valves 0 and s and air-inlet h are openedand the man-holes and valves cl and r are closed. Water-gas or Whenother gaseous fuel at a high temperature is adthrough the trays, thusheating them to a high temperature, the ,heat being absorbed andstoredby the fire-brick trays and filling. When the interior of the generatorhas thus been heated to a sufiicient temperature, the gas-inlet a,air-inlet it, and valve 8 are closed and valve 1" is opened. Steam,preferably superheated, is turned on by the pipe 2' and circulatesaround the trays, oxidizing the iron thereon, the resulting hydrogenpassingaway by the pipe 10. In order to revivify the iron, valve 0",inlet a, and air-inlet h are closed and valve .9 is opened. Producer orwater gas isthen admitted by inlet 6 and in its passage around the traysreduces the iron oxid thereon, thewaste gases passing away to a chimneyor uptake by the valve .9. If necessary, the generator may be heated upin the manner above described before passing the producer or water gastherethrough to revivify the iron.

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. A hydrogen-producing furnace including in combination a casing,supply-pipes for steam and reducing-gas, and a large number of separaterefractory trays adapted to contain a shallow layer of iron infinely-divided form, said trays being built up removably in the furnacein successive courses as a refractory filling, and when in positiondividing up the capacity of the furnace into a number of distinctshallow flues or channels running in a zigzag course from bottom to topof the furnace, whereby free passage is provided through said flues orpassages for the steam or reducing-gas over the iron on the trays, theheatevolved in the reducing stage being largely saved and stored, whilethe trays can be readily removed and replaced as described.

2. A hydrogen-producing furnace including in combination a fillingcomposed of refractory trays Z having a flange at each of its oppositesides extending above and below the horizontal portion, said trays beingbuilt up in successive courses in the furnace, and means for inclosingsaid filling, substantially as and for the purpose specified.

3. In apparatus for the manufacture of gas suitable for heating andpower purposes, a hydrogen-generator comprising in combination a closedstructure of refractory material inclosed in a metallic casing andhaving an admission-opening for gaseous fuel to said generator, anair-admission orifice, a steam-inlet, an admission-opening for a gaseousreducing medium to said generator, a hydrogen-outlet and an outlet forthe products of combustion of said gaseous fuel and for said reducingmedium, a series of refractory heat-retaining trays for containing ironin finely-divided form, disposed in said generator in alternate courses,said courses being in such relative positions that the products ofcombustion of the gaseous fuel or the reducing medium or steam whenadmitted to said generator are caused to pass over the said courses insuccession from side to side throughout the generator, and valves foropening and closing said admission orifices and inlets and outletsaccording to requirement, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of twosubscribing Witnesses.

HERBERT SAMUEL ELWOlt'lllY.

itnesses:

THOMAS L. \VnrrEnEAn, GEORGE CLARE.

